| 树高千丈，叶落归根 |
shù gāo qiān zhàng , yè luò guī gēn |
fig. a tree may grow a thousand zhang high, but its leaves return to their roots (proverb) / fig. everything has its ancestral home / in old age, an expatriate returns home |
| 树 |
shù |
tree / CL:棵 / to cultivate / to set up |
| 高 |
Gāo |
surname Gao |
| 高 |
gāo |
high / tall / above average / loud / your (honorific) |
| 千 |
qiān |
thousand |
| 千 |
qiān |
used in 秋千 |
| 丈 |
zhàng |
measure of length, ten Chinese feet (3.3 m) / to measure / husband / polite appellation for an older male |
| 叶 |
xié |
to be in harmony |
| 叶 |
Yè |
surname Ye |
| 叶 |
yè |
leaf / page / lobe / (historical) period / classifier for small boats |
| 叶落归根 |
yè luò guī gēn |
a falling leaf returns to the roots (idiom); everything has its ancestral home / In old age, an expatriate longs to return home. |
| 落 |
là |
to leave out / to be missing / to leave behind or forget to bring / to lag or fall behind |
| 落 |
lào |
colloquial reading for 落 in certain compounds |
| 落 |
luò |
to fall or drop / (of the sun) to set / (of a tide) to go out / to lower / to decline or sink / to lag or fall behind / to fall onto / to rest with / to get or receive / to write down / whereabouts / settlement |
| 归 |
Guī |
surname Gui |
| 归 |
guī |
to return / to go back to / to give back to / (of a responsibility) to be taken care of by / to belong to / to gather together / (used between two identical verbs) despite / to marry (of a woman) (old) / division on the abacus with a one-digit divisor |
| 归根 |
guī gēn |
to return home (after a lifetime's absence) / to go back to one's roots |
| 根 |
gēn |
root / basis / classifier for long slender objects, e.g. cigarettes, guitar strings / CL:条 / radical (chemistry) |